Note 677 — Chapter VI · (continued 2)

Ord. Vit. 774 C. “Venit ad Planchias Godefredi, vadum Egueniæ fluminis pertransivit, regiosque pugiles qui urbem custodiebant ad conflictum lacessiit.” Vet An. 307. “Non longe a civitate improvisus advenit; cui milites regis simul cum populo usque ad Pontem Leugæ hostiliter occurrentes quum ejus impetum sustinere non possent in fugam conversi sunt. Ille vero amne transmisso, eos viriliter insecutus,” &c. These two accounts seem to place the fighting on different sides of the river. I incline to Orderic’s version on this ground. A version which carries men across by a ford is always to be preferred to one which carries them across by a bridge, as likely to preserve the older tradition. The bridge may always have been built between the time of the event and the time of the writer, and he may easily be led to speak as if it had been there at the earlier time. Orderic himself speaks of the bridge in 775 B.